1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to data processing systems and in particular to an improved system and method for electronic information transfer via data processing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The utilization of electronic mail (e-mails) to communicate has become one of the more common forms of communication in today's computer age. In addition to simply sending text-based messages that are written or typed in the body of the e-mail, many users of e-mail clients/applications now utilize e-mail to attach and forward various types of attachments, including images. As an example, attaching a photo or image to an e-mail that is being sent to an intended recipient's e-mail address is a common usage of e-mail applications.
Conventionally, the attachments to an e-mail are typically of a much larger size than the text placed in the body of the e-mail. Further, with the use of high resolution digital cameras and advanced image editing tools, high quality photos and images can be easily produced. In many instances, images produced by such digital cameras and image editing tools are usually large in content size, which may cause issues (bandwidth, storage, and others) with managing e-mail delivery and receipt. In addition to photos, scanned images and other attached images having a large content size, may also cause similar issues with managing e-mail delivery and receipt.
When an e-mail is sent with an associated image having a large content size, the time required to complete the send and receive process from the local e-mail client to the intended recipient e-mail address generally takes much longer than with other e-mails that have an overall smaller content size (with or without an attachment). For example, when a local e-mail client is utilized to send an e-mail, the e-mail is forwarded to and received by an e-mail server, which then forwards the e-mail to a recipient e-mail client. If the network over which the e-mail is transmitted has a slow transmission rate (perhaps due to congestion and/or low bandwidth), the e-mail application being utilized may appear (to the sender) to be stuck, slow and/or unresponsive. An attachment to the e-mail that has a large content size could cause a bottleneck at any or all of the transit points (e.g., sender client, connecting routers, server, recipient client) and could cause a network delay, as well. In such scenarios, the e-mail application “freezes”, preventing any further use of the application until the sending process of the e-mail is completed. The stuck/frozen e-mail application may ultimately cause frustration for the person utilizing the application, who wishes to utilize the application to complete other tasks.
If the sending e-mail application has a size limit associated therewith, a large photo or image attached to the e-mail may be precluded from being sent. The large size of the e-mail attachment may also cause problems for the intended recipient e-mail client/account, as well. Thus, a long time may be taken for the e-mail to reach the recipient client over the network, or the e-mail may be truncated in the inbox of the recipient client. Also, the large size of the e-mail may cause the recipient client to exceed an e-mail file size limit and/or receive a warning/notification indicating the same. Furthermore, once an intended recipient's e-mail inbox has reached a preset maximum capacity, the recipient's e-mail account may be locked by the e-mail application (or by a system administrator) such that the recipient e-mail account can no longer receive any e-mail until previously received e-mails are removed from the inbox.